If you had a light saber...
- Thread starter infinix
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@iguana: And infinix's last criticism ignores that blades also have little to no mass, so there'd be very little inertia to prevent you stopping the swing on a dime. Plus, since the blade burns or melts its way through what you cut, you wouldn't have to swing it very hard to begin with. It would probably feel more like waving a small stick around than using a heavy sword, and be a lot more controllable as a result.
It'd be an excellent weapon, but need a lot of training - and a safety on the switch. Best thing would be to only switch it on when you've got it in contact with the enemy, to avoid accidentally slicing yourself.
Having said that, the thing that always gets me about it in-universe is that a user with Force-based telekinetic powers shouldn't even *need* to use swordfighting skills - he should be relaxing somewhere, concentrating on sending it around the enemy...
Having said that, the thing that always gets me about it in-universe is that a user with Force-based telekinetic powers shouldn't even *need* to use swordfighting skills - he should be relaxing somewhere, concentrating on sending it around the enemy...
While this might seem reasonable on first thought, given that the blade is of light, in fact I wonder "how true", so to speak, this is. The sabers aren't ordinary light, you know, not even ordinary laser light. Something so advanced, as to be magical to us, has been done here to make the beam stop at about a meter, and to make the blades repel each other. Perhaps the blades must end up having some mass, in order to make their mutual repulsion consistent with Newton's third law, or something.
I'd use it to cut through a tub of butter that's been in the fridge for a couple of days.
Considering this is coming from a movie where there's certain beings born with ability of mind control, floating, flying, and all sorts of other magical crap where they go to school to become a Jedi Knight...
... and all that other crap about maintaining a balance...
.... Science would not apply to the logistics of a light saber....
... and all that other crap about maintaining a balance...
.... Science would not apply to the logistics of a light saber....
Plasma ain't light. Points for trying, but they'd call it a plasma sword then, wouldn't they?
They aren't sabers either, so I don't think nitpicking the terminology is going to go anywhere here.
OK, OK. That's true, I'm not making any conclusions based on terminology. I'm just pointing out that we know very little about the mass or moment of inertia of the blade. Any knowledge we have of such is pure speculation.
I agree. The only clue we have about the dynamics of the weapon is the way they move it on-screen, which would force use to conclude it has about the same mass and moment of a 4-feet plastic stick, since it was what the actor used before they superimposed the blade FX.
Checkmate
Commodore
If I had a light saber... I'd be laughed at by any serious combatant,who would then pull out a pistol and shoot me in the head if I even looked like I was going to attack.
Dumbest weapon ever. Well, unless you're up against people who use "blasters" that shoot painfully slow moving bolts at you. Then I guess it's only moderately dumb... but only because your opponent has an even dumber one.
Dumbest weapon ever. Well, unless you're up against people who use "blasters" that shoot painfully slow moving bolts at you. Then I guess it's only moderately dumb... but only because your opponent has an even dumber one.
Looking at it from an in-universe perspective, the type of shields used by the Gungans in TPM stopped blasters, but when you walked up to them you could pass right through them. Perhaps the laser of the lightsaber is contained within a similar forcefield that will block other lightsabers and blaster fire, but will cut through objects and people.
From an outside perspective, I always figured it was either magnetic field contained plasma; as you said, gravitational lensing, or some kind of Bose-Einstein Condensate or "Slow Light" phenomenon. Of course there are all kinds of physics-related issues with any of those suggestions in relation to the lightsaber, and none fits all the parameters of how a lightsaber works. So maybe it's a combination of multiple techniques. Or it's a magical Jedi laser sword.
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/02.18/light.html
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2005/10/69033
http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200406/history.cfm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2001/jan/19/uknews1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_light
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose–Einstein_condensate
Which is why you just cut their head off instead of merely trying to hit them with it.
Which is why you just cut their head off instead of merely trying to hit them with it.
And in the process of cutting off other people's heads, the light blade will probably swing back around and cut off a piece of yourself.
he'd probably miss, because he's firing at a moving target or, it'd be decoyed away by the helicopters flares.
and before anyone starts citing Super 6-1 in Mogadishu, that guy was firing at a stationary helicopter that was at low altitude, any idiot could've shot it down. and indeed, any idiot did.
Nah, as shown in the movies, the thing has the characteristics of a fencing sabre. It would require merely a flick of the wrist to cut someone's head off.Which is why you just cut their head off instead of merely trying to hit them with it.
And in the process of cutting off other people's heads, the light blade will probably swing back around and cut off a piece of yourself.
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